Free Republic

Sarah Palin on Tuesday lost in the retrial of her defamation case against the New York Times – a second defeat in the efforts by the former Republican vice-presidential candidate. A federal jury in New York deliberated for two hours then found the newspaper not liable for allegedly defaming Palin in a 2017 editorial about gun control. Palin appeared dejected as she left the courthouse in Manhattan. The case garnered much attention not just because Palin and the Times are household names across the US but because it raised broader issues about free speech in the era of the return...

A group of Bronx vigilantes meted out street justice on a sicko who tried to rape a 70-year-old woman — beating him up so badly that he landed in the hospital, cops and residents said Tuesday. Oswaldo Ramos, a 50-year-old career criminal with 19 previous arrests, had approached his victim from behind at Creston Avenue and East 184th Street in Fordham Heights around 1 p.m. Friday and tried to sexually assault her, police and residents said. Surveillance video released by the NYPD showed the perv scrambling to put his pants on after the attack. The next day, vigilante neighbors spotted...

A Republican-led congressional committee sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Pam Bondi re-upping its referral of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for prosecution, accusing him of lying during testimony before the panel as it was investigating the pandemic. The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., had referred its accusations regarding Cuomo to the Department of Justice last year under the Biden administration. The DOJ, then led by Merrick Garland, did not publicly respond to the committee’s referral. In it, the committee accuses Cuomo of lying when he testified that he was not involved in the...

Dem House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday rejected a Democratic National Committee big’s controversial plan to fund primary challenges against passive party members in safe districts. Jeffries of New York instead touted his intent to back all House Democratic incumbents across the country in the 2026 cycle and push the party to focus on knocking off Republicans. “I look forward to standing behind every single Democratic incumbent, from the most progressive to the most centrist and all points in between,” Jeffries told ABC News’ “This Week” when asked about the opposing stance by Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman David...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to charge former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for making “criminally false statements” to Congress, citing “overwhelming evidence” that an audit he presided over had low-balled nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. The House Oversight Committee re-upped the criminal referral after then-Attorney General Merrick Garland declined last year to prosecute Cuomo for allegedly triggering, helping to draft and reviewing a July 6, 2020, report that undercounted the total number of deaths in senior care facilities by 46%. “Andrew Cuomo is a man with a history of corruption and deceit,...

The Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), the field's premier scholarly journal, has dedicated past issues to topics like the "various nuances through which water and design mix" and the "relationship between stories and architecture." Last year, the journal landed on a different topic for its fall 2025 issue: The "ongoing Israeli genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza." The journal's "call for papers"—a prompt for essay submissions—was littered with anti-Semitic rhetoric. It lauded "siege and prison breaks" as methods of "anti-colonial life- and land-protection" and justified Hamas's Oct. 7 attack as "the rupture of settler containment." The fall issue, the journal...

New York Attorney General Letitia James didn’t just misclassify her five-unit Brooklyn brownstone as a “4-family dwelling” on mortgage documents. As we’ve previously reported, this distinction is not trivial—properties with five or more units are considered commercial and subject to stricter lending rules. But our latest investigation reveals something even more troubling: on multiple occasions, James described the property as a “1-family,” “1–2 family,” or even “1–3 family” dwelling—designations that offer even greater mortgage advantages than the 4-family classification, including lower interest rates, reduced reserve requirements, and easier approval thresholds. This isn’t a minor paperwork discrepancy. Five-unit buildings are classified...

As a licensed counselor and therapist helping to keep criminal offenders out of prison, a Brooklyn woman accused of trashing a parked Tesla may need some of her own professional expertise. According to the New York Post, 46-year old Natasha Cohen was arraigned last Saturday and released on her own recognizance after an April 7 surveillance video allegedly showed her dumping a bag of garbage onto a Cybertruck. The bag included a brick scrawled with a swastika and the word “Nazi.”

McMahon and his accomplice Zhu Yong conducted surveillance to harass and intimidate Americans on behalf of China

A former opinion page editor of the New York Times broke down in tears and apologized to Sarah Palin while testifying in court over a 2017 editorial that she says was defamatory. James Bennet testified on Thursday that he “blew it” when he falsely claimed in the editorial that the former Alaska governor’s political action committee had contributed to an atmosphere of violence in the weeks and months leading up to the 2011 assassination attempt on then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.). The Times has acknowledged the editorial was inaccurate but said it quickly corrected the “honest mistake.” Bennet got choked up...

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I cannot wait for the next election in 3 years, it is going to be the most hilarious time ever. Yep. The one and only, Her Majesty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the Bronx. More from New York Daily News: 'I thought I was gonna surprise everyone by taking AOC first,' Silver tweeted, referring to the fact that his colleague Galen Druke also placed Ocasio-Cortez on top of his own early 2028 list. 'That was going to be my … first pick,' he added. Silver and Druke agreed Ocasio-Cortez has the charisma and popularity...

A famously meat-free New York City politician secretly devoured a succulent steak inside the ultra-private upper-level room of Midtown’s beloved Benjamin Steakhouse Prime. “That means our steak is so good that even vegetarians cannot refuse,” restaurant owner Benjamin Prelvukaj said while taking Page Six on an exclusive tour of his storied Manhattan establishments. “I saw with my own eyes,” Prelvujak added of the elected official cheating on his supposed herbivorous habits. While the identity of the politico was not confirmed, some New York-area politicians who maintain a vegetarian or vegan diet include New York Sen. Brian Kavanagh, New Jersey Sen....

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has come a long way since 2018. When she first arrived on the political scene by beating out not just an incumbent, but a member of her party’s leadership in a Democratic primary contest, she was a rebel — an avatar of insurgent impulses within her coalition. And, among Republicans, something of a joke. Now, she’s the Democratic Party’s most popular elected official. A Yale University poll released this week found that among Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez boasts the single highest net favorability rating of all the party’s many potential 2028 presidential candidates — a sky-high 62%. In addition, 41%...

With New York’s state budget being almost two weeks past due, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’ll continue “to keep up the fight” for New Yorkers. “Everyone knows what I’m standing for, and I’m not wavering on my belief that we need to make some significant reforms so we can say that this budgeting process is over,” she told NY1 political anchor Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” Monday. The governor and state lawmakers have been at a standstill over how to spend upwards of $252 billion in a state budget since April 1. One of the points of contention in...

Is there a serial killer hunting in small towns across New England? A growing number of people believe this is happening. Human remains have been discovered in various places in the region and there is enough evidence to suggest that the crimes are connected. It’s creepy to think that there is some evil person out there stalking and killing people for no reason but studies have shown that there are serial killers operating in the country at any given time. Every once in a while, law enforcement connects the dots on certain cases and speculation grows. The Daily Mail reports:...

On the 1300 block of North Eustis Street in St. Paul, Minnesota, a ten-minute drive from the Governor’s Mansion, sits a brutalist brick building that houses a secret Chinese Communist Party (CCP) front operation that serves several functions for the CCP — none of them good for the United States. Out of this building, CCP operatives curry favor with politicians like Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and provide various services for Chinese Americans in Minnesota who are still loyal to Beijing, including hosting meet-and-greets with CCP diplomats and dignitaries. Businesses registered at this address receive six-figure grants from American taxpayers. ......

City Council members sued Mayor Eric Adams over his alleged “corrupt bargain” to return ICE to Rikers Island – raging that it’d give President Trump free rein to deport innocent New Yorkers. The incendiary, 29-page lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan court seeks to halt the long-awaited, controversial Executive Order 50 allowing the feds to reopen the dormant ICE office. Trump officials have made clear they plan to use Rikers as homebase for sweeping deportation operations, despite the order only permitting criminal probes, the lawsuit argues. “Executive Order 50 is a blank check,” the lawsuit states. “Its ostensible limitations are a...

Referral comes from U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, complete with supporting evidence. The federal government's main housing loan agency has referred New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime nemesis of President Donald Trump, to the U.S. Justice Department for possible prosecution over alleged mortgage fraud, according to a letter obtained by Just the News. William J. Pulte, the director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), made the referral Monday to Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche, and attached evidence he said corroborated earlier media reports alleging irregularities in a series of loans James obtained,...

So much crazy happens with the Trump administration every day that some downright weird but incredibly telling stuff gets lost in the noise. A recent example was the scene on April 8 at the White House where, in the middle of his raging trade war, our president decided it was the perfect time to sign an executive order to bolster coal mining. “We’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned,” said President Trump, surrounded by coal miners in hard hats, members of a work force that has declined to about 40,000 from 70,000 over the last decade, according to Reuters....

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo would prevail over socialist Zohran Mamdani in a ranked-choice voting Democratic primary for mayor, according to a new poll released Tuesday. Cuomo led Mamdani 34% to 16% when voters were asked about their first choice even as Mamdani chipped away at Cuomo’s dominance in early polling, the Siena College/AARP survey of 556 registered city Democrats found. Three other candidates in the crowded primary each got 6% support — city Comptroller Brad Lander, his predecessor Scott Stringer and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. State Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos received 4% apiece, according to the survey.